The Offer Sheet Bandwagon is filling up!

It's going to happen

This is the 3-2-1, my semi-regular rundown of three quick things that's designed to raise awareness for the NHL's need to switch to a 3-2-1 scoring system. In this edition, William Nylander, the Buffalo Sabres' offer sheet security, and my upcoming trip to Clemson.

3-point win - Offer Sheets and Giggles!:

Don’t look now but the offer sheet chatter is picking up! With the Nylander situation in Toronto stretching this far into the preseason, the question must be asked: “Why hasn’t another team signed him to an offer sheet?”

Well on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, they’re starting to wonder the same thing! Yesterday, Nick Kypreos, Jeff Marek, and John Shannon kicked the idea around for a bit. Here’s the meat of the conversation:

NK: "I don't understand today, 2018, with the competitive nature now of teams being desperate that there isn't offer sheets now. There should be - that should be a major play. If [Marc] Bergevin isn't in the Jack Hughes sweepstakes this year, why wouldn't he offer sheet Nylander for one year, at $8 [million]-plus? You know what the cost is?"

JM: "1, 2, 3."

NK: "1, 2, 3. A first rounder, a second rounder, and a third rounder. If you're not in on Jack Hughes, why wouldn't you go offer sheet him?"

JM: "If you were Lou Lamiorello with the New York Islanders, why would you not look at offer sheeting either Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner or both?"

JS: "Next July 1st?"

JM: "Yes."

JS: "Absolutely!"

JM: "You want to talk about payback, that's payback."

JS: "I don't know about payback, I just want to make my team better."

JM: "And you make your team better in the process. You pull a knife, we'll pull a gun. That's what that is."

The Sabres… can’t do it with Willie. They don’t have full ownership of their third round pick. There are PLENTY of teams that can and should offer sheet Nylander. This nonsense notion that a general manager will get mad at you is relentless. Let’s destroy the myths one-by-one:

GMs will be mad - Pierre Dorion got screwed over by Doug Wilson in the Mike Hoffman trade, and then traded him Erik Karlsson.

It’ll push up salaries - The salary cap contains salaries and the cap is determined by revenue. If Nylander goes up and more players want more money? So what. They’re still operating under the cap.

The Leafs will just match it - GREAT. Good for them. Seems they’re having some trouble getting Willie to sign to THEIR terms, so let’s make the Leafs uncomfortable and drive up that price.

They’ll take revenge on you! - First, the general manager (in this case I’d say he’s safe) isn’t even guaranteed to be around to try to hit you back… and, if he’s dumb enough to step outside of team-building for a revenge move, then he’s a bad general manager. He’ll probably make an offer sheet that’s dumb and that you can take advantage of.

On Wednesday, Brian Burke said "There’s guys in our league that wouldn’t hesitate to offer-sheet any player." He said that on Sportsnet 590... ON WEDNESDAY.

Earlier this offseason, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said, "I had a general manager say to me yesterday... 'I will bet you my house that the Islanders are going to offer-sheet someone in Toronto.'"

You know they’re coming. You know I’m right. All of you non-believers that have tweeted me betting that it’ll never happen… I’ll bet each and every one of you a six pack. Or you can make a flip-flop bet and we’ll see if YOU would eat one haha.

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2-point OT/SO win - Secure Sabres

Had someone ask me about the Sabres' restricted free agents and who could possibly be offer-sheeted. Sam Reinhart could have been, but wasn’t.

At the end of this season, the following players could be poached:

Zemgus Girgensons

Johan Larsson

Linus Ullmark

Nathan Beaulieu

Jake McCabe

Evan Rodrigues

Scared? The Sabres can, of course, sign any of these guys to an extension long before they’d become available.

At the end of the 2021 season, the list includes:

Casey Mittelstadt

Tage Thompson

Sam Reinhart

That’s it. There’s almost no exposure. The Sabres cap is in good shape. At the start of the 2021 offseason, the Sabres are slated to have $50 million in cap space, with only Jack Eichel, Kyle Okposo, Patrik Berglund, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Carter Hutton on the books.

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1-Pointer - Road Tripping!

So I’m going to Clemson this weekend. A big part of who I am, or have been, is a spontaneous trip taker. Back in my single days, I’d call in to work to get the next day off, and drive to Detroit for the ALCS. In the early days dating my wife, we up and drove to Baltimore to take in a USMNT soccer game against Cuba. My latest is this weekend’s spur-of-the-moment trip to see Syracuse play at Clemson.

I’ve been fortunate enough to catch a few big-time college football games. When I was at Syracuse from 1997-2001, they played some big games. I swear they did! There were Thursday night games with West Virginia, appearances by The U, and perhaps my greatest ever sports memory… the Big East winning, last minute touchdown from Donovan McNabb to Stephen Brominski.

Cuse fans… relive that here, at the 6:10 mark:

I’ve made a few stops in Columbus to see the Buckeyes, and also to Happy Valley for Penn State… but for the longest time I’ve been dying to get to a college game in the “SOUTH”. Clemson counts. So I get Syracuse, at Clemson, in a game that matters for both teams. Syracuse is off to a great start this year and my interest in the team is right back where it was (almost) in the late 1990s. Will they win? I doubt it, but I don’t care. I just can’t wait to feel the 83-degrees with 83,000 fans and see the greatest entrance in college football.

Trying to think of the short list of sport and authentic environment or venue…

Soccer in England

College football in the South

Perhaps NFL football in Buffalo or Lambeau?

Cameron Indoor Stadium…

Baseball at Fenway or Wrigley…

I’ll be tweeting my time down there, and hope to come back with some good stories, and of course a fever to see a few more along the way.